I spend a good part of my day reading just about anything I can get my hands on, especially cookbooks. I also receive nearly every edible publication each quarter, and proudly confess my status as a magazine junkie.

Last month I stole an entire day, cooked enough food to last a few meals, and took to my hammock with a stack of reading material and an ocean view (yes, the offi ce here has an ocean view). As I picked up my fi rst magazine, one particular headline struck me as odd, “Female Chef Wins Best Chef.” I wondered why the chef’s femininity need be mentioned in the headliner.

The theme to our summer issue is COOK, and, as I lay in my hammock, I started thinking about all the women that cook food. Amongst the pile of cookbooks and magazines I was going through, however, I found surprisingly few stories centered around women.

In most homes as we were growing up, especially in my generation, it was the women that dominated the kitchen, but in professional kitchen settings, both then and now, most of the chefs are male. This issue that you hold in your hands pays homage to women; each story, every writer and photographer is a female, well except one.

I am proud of this issue because it showcases talented fi shermen, creative artists, kickass mothers, and some incredible chefs. No other descriptor necessary.

P.S. Our 2016 summer issue is #37 and the start of our 10th year of publishing edible Hawaiian Islands Magazine. Number 37 is an auspicious number and it has a very special meaning to me. Thank you to everyone who has helped grow our magazine.

Dania N. Katz
Publisher / Editor Le? er of A